Overview
Drawing is addressed both as an essential course of study for all visual art disciplines, as well as a focused area of concentration. The SIUE Drawing curriculum begins with a technically rigorous foundation that enables students to visualize ideas, analyze structure, and translate visual phenomena rather than merely copy surfaces.
As students advance through the undergraduate drawing classes, a holistic development of each student artist is nurtured. Technical and formal skills are honed in balance with personal thematic development. We are committed to making the discipline of drawing a vital and complementary practice to those working in other studio disciplines. We develop the skills for individualized research.
Those accepted into the BFA program with a focus in drawing are offered studios (almost always available), and engage in critique nights attended by multiple faculty members and shared with MFA students. Other offerings include figure drawing sessions open to students and artists out in the community, membership in our student organization the Painting and Drawing Association, and dialogues with visiting artists.
Brigham Dimick is Head of the Drawing Area. Historically, the Drawing Area has had a variety of studio faculty teaching drawing classes. This interaction and variety of faculty from other disciplines has provided depth and richness to the drawing specialization.
Policy for the Study of Nude Models in SIUE Figure Drawing Classes
Prepared by Brigham Dimick, Associate Professor in Art and Design
- Studying the nude is an enduring form of artistic and creative expression.
- Faculty in the Drawing area of the SIUE Art Department are custodians of a time-honored tradition that links artistic development from contemporary art all the way back to the Classical Greece-inspired work of the Renaissance.
- Our commitment to holistic enrichment involves the study of the human nude. Such study bridges aesthetic development with biological science (humananatomy), and upholds a time-tested tradition of study in visual arts training.
- We uphold standards of propriety by strictly adhering to guidelines that maintain a professional distance between models and students, as well as models and instructors.
- We communicate and maintain a policy of zero tolerance for anything lewd or disrespectful.
- As part of our BA and BFA degrees, we require all students to enroll in ART112C. This course’s focus is on the practice and theory of drawing as it relates to the human form.
- Since direct observation of the human nude is the main component in the course’s study, we do not offer an opt-out option.
- We do accept transfer credit for the course if the applicant’s study in another school demonstrates essential competencies in drawing the human form from observation.
